So, a couple weeks ago (the same weekend that Texas played at Kansas State), I went out to Houston to visit my brother and his gf. I was overdue for a visit and my uncle was in town too to visit my cousin who had just moved to the Houston area a little bit ago. My parents drove down from the Metroplex as well. So on Saturday we all met up out at Karbach brewery. Fun place. Not the first time I've been there. Love a lot of my local Austin breweries, but if anyone likes beer and is out there give it (and either the food trucks that rotate through, or their restaurant) a try.
Anyway, my cousin is a Michigan alum so of course football came up. We were both wearing our school colors. We made sure they had the UT game on where we could see it. We checked and confirmed that, no, they didn't have BTN so he was going to have to wander off later to go watch the Wolverines slaughter Illinois. We talked about how frustrating it was seeing the chances Texas had in that game that they botched. We talked about how good Michigan was and that he felt like he had paid his dues to get to this point, after having some frustrating years. Before he headed off, the Aggie/Bamma game was starting up and a bunch of Aggie fans were showing up, including a bunch at the long table 15 feet behind us. My cousin asked what I thought was going to happen in that game. I said that I figured that Bama was the real deal and that the Aggies were due to get stomped. I pointed out that A&M had barely held on in overtime to beat Tennessee... who promptly followed that up by hosting Bama and getting stomped, and that the transitive property doesn't always work in football, but I thought that Alabama was a lot better than A&M. There was a group of rather tall ladies and gents sitting next to me who heard me and chimed in with their opinions. Turns out they were a group of 3 couples, and that all the husbands and wives had been college basketball players (I remember that the guys went to Baylor, Texas State, and I think maybe Tech...? The ladies I forget. One was North Dakota, but I think the other two were Texas schools. And one couple had a daughter who is on the UT women's team). So we talked a little more about it, but that's pretty much all that was said. I thought they'd lose. I had brought up the aggie October roller coaster meme on my phone, but didn't even get to that point before my cousin and uncle were leaving and I stood up to say goodbye.
About that time, one of the Aggies stood up too. And got right in my face... (well, ok, about 6 to 8 inches below my face... I'm 6'4" and probably look shorter when I'm sitting down) and said, "you want to keep running your mouth?" I'd had a few beers and am not at all the kind of person to pick fights over stupid things that aren't worth picking fights over... and honestly, I didn't even realize anyone not at our table would have heard me, so I smiled and asked "what?" thinking it was some kind of joke. I mean, it was a brewery. People were having fun. My team had just shot itself in the foot multiple times to finish the game and I was still having a fun time. My neighbors at our table were all giants, including the women (even relative to my 6'4") and I was having fun. Random people started showing up in some pretty ridiculous Halloween costumes and I was having fun. My dad had taken a stab at trying to get me to argue politics... and even with that, meh, it was a beautiful day and the beer was good and I was having fun. So yeah, I turned around, smiled, and said "what?" because I thought it was a joke.
He was serious as hell. "You've been going on and on about this for the last few minutes. You want to talk shit??" I tried not to actually laugh. Not for "the last hour." Not "for 30 minutes." For "the last few minutes"... which was accurate. It's definitely taking me longer to type this than the conversation about "how do I think that game will go?" "I think Alabama is going to beat them pretty solidly" went. And while it isn't that hard to come up with something to make fun of Aggies over, I don't think being asked who I thought would win and saying that Alabama would really counts as that...?
"Maybe you want to shut up now?" he said, clearly either wanting to actually pick a fight with me, or for me to back down. I was beer-happy and this whole situation was ridiculous. Did he even see the final score for the UT game? And his feelings were still so brittle that someone in burnt orange just saying that he thought Alabama would win their game drove him to want to pick a fight?? How long has it been since they left the conference and told us they'd moved on to bigger and better things? How is it possible that he still has that much of a complex about it all?
"Are you serious?" I asked, still trying to figure out how to take the situation at all seriously. I noticed the people at his table were trying not to look in my direction while it was going on. "Yes"... he was.
About this time my brother had heard a bit of it all and echoed my question. "Is he serious?" He then pointed out that my glass was empty and suggested we go get beers. And the guy took that as an invitation to sit back down since I guess he figured I would be backing down... though I hadn't moved yet and I still really didn't understand how this could possibly be a situation that was worthy of that much anger.
Anyway, I tell this story because earlier today while I was watching my Longhorns play, and I kept seeing the updates about A&M losing to Mississippi State... I was thinking about you, inordinately-angry-Aggie-fan. And then, today too, it was time go grab another beer.